During the first half on Sunday at Brown, Nick Madray, Magnus Richards, and Rob Mansell were all on the bench with two fouls. Madray and Richards were also limit somewhat in the first half of the season opener because of fouls.

Dempsey described the way the games have been officiated as “a joke” in the advance that ran in Wednesday’s paper, but he shared more thoughts on the matter.

“I’m really disappointed in the way the game is being called right now, but it’s being called fairly both ways,” Dempsey said. “But when you don’t have a lot of depth and all your guys are constantly in foul trouble, it makes it hard. It’s something that we’re just going to have to play through. I hope that we come to our senses a little big as an organization, and people start to see its bad for the game the way the game is being called. It’s not good for the game.

“When we make rule changes, it’s supposed to be for the betterment of the game. The officials are the show right now, not the players.”

When asked about whether as a coach the fouls are something you have to direct your own players to take advantage of, Dempsey again was straightforward.

“It changes how you coach,” he said. “Our offense the other night (at Brown University) just became about telling the guys just drive it, drive it, drive it, drive it because they’re going to call fouls. We got to the line 33 times, but it’s not good for basketball. Defensively, you’re trying to teach your kids. We spent 25 practices early in the year about being physical, being tough on D, and then any time there is any contact they’re fouling. Now all of sudden everybody is being less aggressive.

“I just, I watched the national championship game in March or early April and it was a war. It was a bloodbath, and now all of sudden nobody can breathe on anybody. It’s just too drastic of a change for the players. They’ve never played this way their whole life. We’ve never coached this way. It’s very, very drastic. It’s not me complaining. It has nothing to do with why we lost our first two games. I’m watching games on TV. I’m watching our games. I’m seeing stats of different games. The change is drastic and not for the better.”